Wet

Things are very very wet at the moment. I've been working on the farm part time but this week I'm off to visit my sister in Manchester so I've decided to spend the rest of it at home.

Today was a bit of a write off as it rained all day. I have ordered the timber to build my garden shed (one shed is not enough for me!) and finished insulating the walls in my workshop, but I didn't nothing outside. I wanted to move my two useless big black compost bins so I can make some bins with old pallets that will actually produce compost, but with the rain I decided against it.

I did give the chickens a wad of straw to try and soak up the mud in their pen (didn't do much good but they like scratching around in it).

Big changes

Well I've gone from having no time at all to having all the time in the world. Work has laid me off - not that i'm disappointed, I was getting to the end of my tether anyway, but it's always annoying when its not you that made the desion.
Claire has said to me not to look too hard before christmas for more work (I get paid till the end of December anyway) as she's worried if I find anything then I'll have to work over the holiday period.
I dont think she should worry too much as there isn't a fat lot of work about anyway, got a few things lined up for the new year if it comes to it, in the mean time I'm a kept man (although I'm trying to spend as much time as possible finishing my shed & helping dad on the farm).
On the bright side I'd forgotten what it felt like to have free time and cook tea for my wife.

Courgettes in November

I can't believe how mild the weather has been, I've still got courgettes in the veg patch and roses in the boarders! Not thats I've seen them much as I haven't got back before 7 during the week but I've had a great weekend.Mum and dad both came round yesterday. Dad to give me a hand putting the roof on my shed, and mum to tidy up a few areas in the garden.

In all it was really productive, we got most of the roof on (I finished it off today) and it looks great - its got me keen to finish the inside of my shed and get making things again.

Mum worked wonders in the garden and cleared two areas that I've been "storing" rubbish. We did uncover a hedgehog at one stage but we built it another little house with dried grass and roof tiles so I hope it will be alright.

Green Tomato chutney time again

With it being such a mild autumn ~I've left the tomatoes longer this year. Last weekend I went to pick them and had over 7lb of green toms plus loads of red ones!

This year we thought we'd try to make enough to last us the whole year, we used the same recipe as last year but on a larger scale. I did feel sorry for Claire though as after spending two hours pealing tomatoes her hands looked like that of a ninety year old!

We did get to use one of our wedding presents which was a nice big copper bottomed saucepan to make it in (although I did burn quite a bit to the bottom) it took ages for it to reduce down and the mixture was still a bit runny.

All we've got to do now is wait for it to mature...

Fungal foray

Been so busy this week that I haven't had chance to write my blog. Work has been killing me, haven't got home before 7.30 and I leave the house a little after 6.00!

Last weekend was good though, very much in the countryside. Saturday was spent doing a few jobs in the garden then driving over to mum and dads farm for a spot of shooting. I went pigeon shooting for starters but they didn't have to be scared as I didn't even see a pigeon let alone shoot one!

Afterwards my brother and I went lamping for rabbits, he drove and I shot, managed to get a good few for the pot and lessen the numbers a little. (I had planned to make rabbit stew in the week but in the end I never had chance as I got back too late each night so they got wasted, I was a bit gutted about that)

Sunday was spent with my brother, we went up to some woods just south of Iron Bridge for the fungal foray we had booked. There was 28 of us on the course (which was too many), we all met up in the green woods centre and then headed for the trees in search of any mushrooms we could find.

After being told how to pick mushrooms safely and what to remember about where we found them, we were quite amazed with how many were about considering how dry it has been. straight away me and Dave found some edible ones (although the slugs had been there first) and soon everyone was coming up with more and more.

After a dinner of mushroom soup we then went to some different woods to find some truffles! My brother was like a little truffling pig and found about five before anyone else had found any! unfortunately the instructor didn't tell us until we'd found them that this type could not be eaten so we were all a little disappointed.

The day was really good and we went home with enough mushrooms to make a nice meal and a little bit more knowledge on what to look for without killing ourselves.

Planting Garlic on a Sunny Afternoon

Had a wonderful lazy sunday where we went for a nice long walk to the next village across from ours and then, once we'd failed to find a good picnic spot, we ended up having our lunch in the garden!Afterwards I planted the four different types of garlic in where the potatoes had been eariler in the year, with a little blood, fish and bone added in for good measure.

Being the good husband that I am I also cooked a nice roast dinner. The whole meal could be traced. The Potatoes I brought from the farm shop, the runner beans, carrots and shallots were from the garden and the lamb (which was lovely) was from my fathers farm. I felt quite please with that and tonights tea was all the leftovers fried up with some extra shallots and courgettes so although not as glamourus as yesterdays dinner but still tasty and local.

Squash it...

I had to go to work this morning which is always a bit of a blow, but I was looking forward to a nice afternoon in the garden. All was going well until the heavens opened and I had to run back inside!

I did manage to pick two more vegetable spaghetti squashes but we're still not sure what to do with the first one! Going to leave them to mature first as I don't want them tasting like the first squash we had last year!

Also prepared the ground for the four different types of garlic that I brought last weekend at Malvern show but the rain stopped me planting them!

Drying French Beans

My french beans had definatly come to an end a few weeks ago, so I just left the last few pods on the plant to die off and dry in the weather we've been having lately.

Tonight I had half an hour in the garden before it got dark so I managed to pull all the beans off the plant and empty the pods into a seed tray. These I'll leave in the shed until they're dry and then store them in a kilner jar.

I hope I can use any sort of french bean for drying! Does anyone have any information?